I grew up in Chelsea and Newton, Mass. and now make my home in Arlington. I taught high school in Haverhill and Burlington until 2007, and have been a writer for about as long as I was a teacher. Maybe longer. While much of my writing is business-
...

I grew up in Chelsea and Newton, Mass. and now make my home in Arlington. I taught high school in Haverhill and Burlington until 2007, and have been a writer for about as long as I was a teacher. Maybe longer. While much of my writing is business-related, I also write whenever I travel and I travel whenever I can.

English-Irish history is too complex for a blog, a book, maybe even a series of books. But the controversial historic ties are central to Irish character and recent history is especially relevant to our next stop: Derry, in Northern Ireland.

The name Derry derives from the ancient Celtic word 'daire' meaning a thicket of oak trees, the kind of wooded areas that were often central to pagan rituals. While those rites lingered into the 1500s, Christianity took root and grew. Generally Ireland’s geographic isolation and ancient Celtic culture led to a unique blend of practices. Over the years, Papal and royal mandates to reorganize the Irish Church had some success, but Irish culture retained its unique underpinning.

The Norman invasion of Ireland in 12th-13th century failed to bring the Emerald Isle fully into the English fold. Although Dublin was center of English power in Ireland from the 1300’s forward, to the English, it seemed the resilient Irish were not quite falling into line: Irish culture remained dominant. After Henry VIII left the Catholic church in the mid-1500s, England’s efforts to make Ireland a part of England intensified.

The English first captured Derry in the mid-sixteenth century, lost it shortly after, only to return in 1600. In 1603, King James gave a charter for a new (English) town where Derry stood, and hoped English merchants would establish themselves there. The native Irish did not approve and destroyed King James’ ‘new’ Derry.

The 'Londonderry Wall'

King James would not be stopped. Confiscating land from the Irish, the King offered appealing opportunity to Scots and English. He charged these Protestant transplants with the responsibility of building walls— made of lime, earth and stone— to keep the Irish rebels from destroying the ‘new town’ of ‘Londonderry’. Eager for options not available in their homeland, many took advantage, especially the Scots. They moved to Northern Ireland and very soon, the Protestants greatly outnumbered the natives of that area.

By the 1700s, most of the land in Ireland belonged to Protestants. In the south, a few wealthy Protestant hands held a lot of Irish land: Protestants were a minority. But in the north, Ulster Scots had become the majority. And there lies the trouble. and the Troubles. Literally.